Traffic regulations are currently usually defined by generally applied rules such as give way to the right, traffic signs, light signals or by traffic police. Individually steered vehicles, such as motor vehicles or bicycles, rail vehicles such as trams and also pedestrians, are able to avoid potential collisions and accidents by following these rules. This applies to right-of-way rules for example, but also to other traffic regulations such as no overtaking, for example.
For modern vehicles and other road users, traffic regulations are usually read by the driver or pedestrian from road signs, light signals or traffic police or are determined from the specific traffic conditions. Thus for example, a driver can tell in the absence of road signs at an intersection that the basic rule of giving way to the right applies. He can deduce from other vehicles at the intersection whether he has right-of-way or not, i.e. has to give way if necessary. If the driver sees a member of the traffic police, he can also tell whether he is allowed to drive on or not. When a vehicle is approaching a junction, for example an access road to a motorway or other highway, the driver can determine from the laws of the country whether a merging vehicle should in principle wait for a gap in the flowing traffic, or whether the merging vehicle is given priority.
The manual interpretation of traffic regulations is always associated with the risk of human error. The result of incorrectly interpreting the traffic regulations or deliberately disregarding traffic regulations means that there is a very high risk of an accident. Therefore, systems have already been developed that interpret traffic regulations, for example by means of a camera, and help the driver to observe the traffic regulations. Of course, said systems cannot prevent an accident, particularly if at least one vehicle involved in a situation to be controlled interprets at least one traffic rule incorrectly. This may be a result of technical faults for example or also recognition problems, such as having a road sign covered in snow.